Pakistan’s decision to evict the United States from a drone-launching base will have little impact on the CIA’s ability to strike terrorists in the Tribal Areas because the US has backup bases in Afghanistan, a senior defence official has said. The official told The Washington Times that the US military and CIA built the launching strips in Afghanistan in anticipation of the day when Pakistan would want US forces out of the Shamsi facility. The government ordered the US to leave the Shamsi base and shut down a vital supply line to NATO forces in Afghanistan after NATO airstrikes killed 24 soldiers in a border clash November 26. The defence official, who asked not to be named because of the issue’s sensitivity, said the administration’s view was that Pakistan announced the eviction of the drone operation as a public relations move to placate political and Islamic groups. “They are dealing with multiple audiences,” the official said. US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, while CIA director in 2009, revealed that the Predator strikes in the Tribal Areas represented the only way for the United States to kill al Qaeda and Taliban targets because Pakistan would not allow any expanded ground or air assaults by American forces. “We have many redundancies,” the official said. “We like to have multiple ways of doing things. It’s not a big issue that would mean any huge degradation.” Pakistan realised that there were terrorists who threatened its regime, the official said, adding that for that reason, “Islamabad wants the US to continue drone attacks”. Pakistan also does not want to further jeopardise the huge amount of economic and military aid the United States sends its way. The Congressional Research Service reports that Congress has authorised $22 billion in such aid since 2002. “They have to play both sides of the fence sometimes,” the official said.
